/    TAKE ME TO THE THRESHOLD


Trio Show

Eva Dixon
Ladina Clément
Tom Enoch

June 6 - July 27
2024

Flexitron is pleased to present Take Me to the Threshold, an exhibition of work by Eva Dixon, Ladina Clément and Tom Enoch. This exhibition marks the first in Flexitron’s new programme of artist-led exhibitions, in which artist Tom Enoch has invited Eva Dixon and Ladina Clément to exhibit alongside him. Through a variety of approaches, Take Me to the Threshold explores how each of these artist’s practices seek to bend the limits between material and subject, surface and support.

When we think of the epistemology of thresholds, they act as a marker between one space, idea or concept and the next. Framing the exhibition is a network of orange markings which the works are hung in relation to. Most notably there is a mid line running centrally throughout; a nod to the thresholds of a traditional hang. Yet this tradition, and the gallery space as a whole, has been turned on its head. The works have been placed in a state of play, the intersecting orange lines creating an environment similar to the markings of a playground. It is as though the midlines of multiple spaces have collided and curved, with the artworks passing between borders, from one into the next.

In formation, each work occupies a different space, or vertical plane of the gallery. Sitting atop the gallery wall, rather than hanging on it, we find Eva Dixon’s Calypso (2023). Dixon’s work critiques the traditional conventions of painting, questioning the medium beyond surface, and into ‘object-hood’. Often finished within the space when they are hung, the paintings, constructed from found fabrics, clingfilm, clasps, bungees and buckles interact with their environments. The physical constraints of the stretcher are challenged through their bespoke production, fastening multiple forms together like two bodies joined, or protruding out of the wall in what’s feels to be an exposure of the underlying support, as is the case with Orange (2023).

As Dixon’s paintings pull on the frames they are stretched round, Tom Enoch’s new wall based sculptures look to burst at the seams. Using domestic objects and packaging materials, Enoch takes the language and materiality of sculpture, and pushes it toward the threshold of painting. The bulging yellow surface of Perilously close to Rhapsody (2024) feels trapped by it’s frame, evoking a bodily expression. At first glance we see the old chair frame, suggesting the stretch of the surface is from the weight of a body. But the work is not as it seems, and the longer we stare, the more it feels as though the unformed sculptural materials are trying to escape off the wall, back into three-dimensional space they long for.

Pushing past and through physical barriers and limits is at the core of the three artists practices, perhaps none more-so than Ladina Clément. When thinking of the corporeality of objects and materials, Clément’s work Inflexion (2024) plays with the limits of the plasticity and flexibility of human and material bodies. Using gym equipment as motifs, she creates work that lolls, exhales, and curls up, transforming the material qualities of functional objects to the point that they become absurd, anthropomorphic or alluring. In the case of Inflexion (2024), the resin dumbbell feels fragile, like a glass spine struggling to hold itself under its own weight. This fragility is offset by the taught, thin clingfilm skin that holds together Tom Enoch’s Stretched Thin (2024), protecting the outside world from the sharp enclosure within.

Like plots on a scatter graph, delineating the boundary between painting and sculpture, each work in Take Me to the Threshold plays with the limits between the medium and subject, using the gallery as a physical analogy. Through this playful hang, the artists encourage the viewer to engage with the full verticality of the gallery interior, and question the traditional thresholds we often encounter within an exhibition.


1. Ladina Clément, Inflexion (2024), Resin, 30cm x 20cm x 15cm

2. Tom Enoch, Stretched Thin (2024), Nails, Wooden Board, Foam Corners, Clingfilm, 25.5cm x 26cm x 13cm

3. Eva Dixon, Calypso (2023), Hand and Machine Sewn Fabric, Marker, Buckles, Latch, Nuts and Bolts, Glitter, Acrylic Paint on Stretcher,     52cm x 96cm x 4cm

4. Tom Enoch, Perilously close to Rhapsody (2024), Wood, Metal Fixings, Plaster, Yellow Pigment, 35cm x 41cm x 9cm

5. Eva Dixon, Orange (2023), Machine Stitched Fabric on Painted Stretcher, 20.5cm x 25.5cm x 2cm

6. Ladina Clément, Let me down gently (2024), PVC, Wadding, Thread, Eyelets, 34cm x 48cm x 6cm



ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:

Tom Enoch (b.1999) is based in London. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2023, and was the recipient of the Stokkøyya residency award (2023), culminating in a collaborative residency in Stokkøyya, Norway in the autumn of 2024. He has been included in a number of exhibitions including Platforms Project, Technopolis, Athens (2023); Lethaby Gallery, London (2023); Safehouse 1 & 2, London (2023); D Contemporary, London (2022); Strangefield, Glasgow (2022). Enoch was included in the public sculpture project ‘Waterlow Art Park’ (2019) in collaboration with LUX, London, Lauderdale House and Central Saint Martins, where his work was   a highlighted feature.

Eva Dixon (b.2000) is based in London. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2023, with the CSM archives collecting her degree show work. Dixon has been on residency at La Sira, Paris (2022) and Good Eye Projects, London (2022) and is the recipient of the LVMH sustainability award (2023) and has received grants from both Kew Gardens (2021) and the Richard Coward foundation (2022). She has had a recent solo exhibition, ‘Lesbian Trucker Paintings’ (2023) at The Fires Project, London and has been included in a number of exhibitions including The Saatchi Gallery, London (2024); Shipton, London (2024); MAMA, London (2024); Christies, London (2023); Eve Leibe Gallery, London (2022). Dixon is included in the upcoming group exhibition ‘Ultraviolet’ with Kkweering Arts in London, and is releasing an affordable edition with Particular Ideas.

Ladina Clément (b. 1996) is based in London. She graduated with an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Arts in 2022 and was the recipient of the Leverhulme Trust Arts scholarship (2021). Clément has been on residency with Good Eye Projects, London (2023) and was awarded the RCA Gilbert Bayes Award (2022) and was a finalist in the Ingram Prize (2022). In February (2024) she had her first solo exhibition in London, ‘Soft Furnishings’ at Stone Space and has been included in a number of exhibitions internationally including D Contemporary, London (2023); The Stone Space, London (2023); OSHS Projects, London (2022); Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2021); Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen (2021); The Holborn Museum, Bath (2019); Summerhall, Edinburgh (2018). Clément is included in the upcoming group exhibition ‘MK Calling 2024’ at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes this June.